Before It's Gone...

How many of us have promised ourselves that we would have all our Christmas shopping done before December so we could focus on the spirit of the season or other similar promises? This has been my goal for 3 years now and I have failed 3 years in a row. The more Christmas's I have the quicker they go by, I know you can relate.

How do we focus on the reason for the season...The Savior? I don't have that figured out. If there were some special formula to be able do it all I would share it with you, promise. What I do know is that if you feel like you fail because you try things and they don't stick, don't despair. I have tried so many different things the past few years and truthfully not many really stick. I have found that the things that really stick are the ones that are built into my normal routine. I have to go grocery shopping and so it's easy to buy a bouquet of flowers and then give it to someone, this has stuck.
Back to Christmas, the thing is Christmas is a here it comes, enjoy it if you can, if not too bad so sad try again next year kinda deal. Having Christmas traditions that are focused on the Savior and serving our fellow brothers and sisters are huge in helping us feel the CHRISTmas spirit. Here are a few things I have tried over the years I will tell you what has stuck and what hasn't. What doesn't work for us may work great in your life and vice versa.

12 days of Christmas service....didn't stick. I think this will work great when I have older kids that can take more initiative on their own. It can be hard to do if you're not the greatest planner like me.


Kindness Elves...this is what I am dying to try! I love the idea of the Elf on the Shelf, but never got one. This has my kind of spin on it though! I also think it will be easier because it doesn't have to be a daily project. If we did 6 decent size service projects (as in making cookies for a neighbor size project) between today and Christmas I would feel successful. The Elves or whatever you choose to use can encourage kids to do other stuff between the bigger stuff. Miss Anna the fabulous creator of this idea (I could just hug her for this great idea) blogs at The Imagination Tree. She has started an Instagram hashtag so people can post what they have done which means you can get ideas :)
Thanks Janalee for sending me a link to this post!



The Giving Jar...yeah, were floundering on this one. We still have it on our counter, but it's hard to do if you don't use cash much. For those people like my dad who feel up a ridiculously huge container full of coins every year this is for you!


How is Christ Supposed to Compete With Santa? Giving a gift to our kids that focuses on the Savior...
This has stuck! The first year I found the biggest box (symbolizing that Christ is the greatest gift) I could and put pictures we had of the Saviors life in it and they opened it on Christmas Eve and we sat down and talked about the pictures. The second year I found a snow globe with the nativity in it and the kids opened it on Christmas Eve and then we all took turns bearing our testimony's about the savior. Excited to keep this tradition alive!




Good deeds paper chain...we did this for one year. I think it would be fun to do again, but since Zaya is already doing Service Beans it would be redundant. It's fun, simple and festive! This would be good to do for Russel though. He is always talking about Service Beans when he does something good...hum maybe we will have to revive this tradition!



What traditions of service do you and your family do this Christmas season?

Well, all we can do is try and let stick what sticks and not be upset when something doesn't. I don't want to be overwhelmed with keeping up with traditions, I want there to be balance in it all and we all know balance is elusive. Let's KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) and we'll all have it figured out by the time were 90 right?! Ha!

Merry Christmas :)

How is Christ supposed to compete with Santa?

On our way to Church last week my daughter was talking to my husband about what she was hoping Santa would bring her for Christmas. Which usually would be no big deal but this time it really gave me pause to think and made me realize just how much she thinks Christmas is centered around getting and the man she believes gets it to her...Santa. What ran through my head was exactly this "How is Christ supposed to compete with Santa?" She wants toys and knows that's whats coming. How am I supposed to really get it across to her that what Christmas is really about is our Savior coming into the world to eventually grow up and provide a path to Salvation through the Atonement? Stuff is tangible and there is sooo much focus in the world on getting stuff. While trying to explain Christ and all that He is about is more of talking and day to day example. Granted this is not something that is only taught during Christmas in our home, it's just harder to make it shine above all those shiny toys dancing in there sweet little heads during Christmas. The solution to my question came quickly and without much effort and made me feel much better knowing I had something I could do. An object lesson that I hope will be highly effective. It is simply this; get a huge box (I am going to use a vacuum cleaner box) and put things in it that are about Jesus and what he has done for us. It could be pictures, words, stories, short explanations and definitions or a combination depending on your childrens ages I also think it would be neat to have short quotes or questions for specific people to answer and give them the opportunity to bear there testimony about a key principle. Wrap it of coarse make it the prettiest present under the tree. I think another key point is to build it up  a little by saying things like it's the greatest gift you will ever get. You could put from Jesus or say we don't know who it's from or whatever you want. I think the timing of opening it is also important. Christmas eve is when I think we will do it. Reason being if they get to open one present it being this then there attention should be on it because they can only open one present. trying to get kids to focus in the middle of opening presents on Christmas day or after or having them wait maybe until before Christmas dinner may be good as well then their curiosity will be peaked and the excitement of newly opened presents will have worn off a tad...unless they just got a Silhouette ;) Hahaha...

I don't have a picture of ours under the tree I may add it later but for tonight this picture above will have to suffice for an example. I do know for sure that it will be the biggest present under our tree. It really is the biggest gift EVER. I hope this helps you and am excited to try this out on my kids. If you have any suggestions of how to tweak this let me know I would love to hear from you. If you give this a try let me know, I would love to hear how it went! Also, I realize there are many ideas out there about how to try and get across to kids that Christ is the most important part of Christmas. Really I have just began my quest my oldest is 5 so I don't have much experience with it yet. I would love to hear about any ways you keep Christ in Christmas.

I would like to amend my comment about this idea being the solution, it's not thee solution and the only thing I will be doing or have done for keeping my family focused on our Savior. The reason for the previous posts on the Giving jar and 12 days of Christmas service is to help keep Christ in Christmas. What better way to teach our children or Christ then to teach and help them to serve and give of themselves. I also love getting presents and finding just the right present for others and to me Christmas is either all about presents and Santa or what I am shooting for Christ as our focus and presents as an added bonus. I want to help them lose themselves in doing good then I know the focus on getting will be much, much less. There is nothing wrong with a kid being excited about presents it's so much fun but it just shouldn't be what it's all about.